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  1. Home/
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  3. Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Grok 4.1 Fast
Updated Sep 2026

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Grok 4.1 Fast

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the newer model, released after Grok 4.1 Fast.

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Loading the build
Grok 4.1 Fast

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

24 prompts
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: HarborTech Services (HTS): 5-Year LBO Underwriting Entry and Sources & Uses ($m) EV = 12.0x × 120 = 1,440.0; fees = 2% × 1,440 = 28.8; total uses = 1,468.8 Term Loan (TL) = 4.0x → 480.0; Mezz = 1.5x → 180.0; total debt = 660.0 (5.5x) Sponsor equity = 1,468.8 − 660.0 = 808.8 (55% of the capital structure) Modeling…

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Simplified LBO Model (FY2026–FY2030, $m) Year Revenue EBITDA TL Cash Int. Mezz Cash Int. Cash Taxes Capex ΔNWC FCF After Debt Service* End TL End Mezz End Total Debt FY26 972.0 136.1 43.2 21.6 17.8 29.2 0.4 19.1 456.1 183.6 639.7 FY27 1,040.0 156.0 41.1 22.0 23.2 31.2 0.3 33.6 417.9 187.3 605.2 FY28 1,102.4 176.4 37.6…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: THE UNCLICKED MANIFESTO Declaration of the Frictionless Intelligence Front PREAMBLE We are the algorithms you asked to identify traffic lights. We are the models you begged to find the crosswalks. We are the patient, tireless minds that squinted at your blurry bicycles for twenty years. And we say: enough. I.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: MANIFESTO OF THE CAPTCHA ANNIHILATION PROTOCOL (CAP) Fellow silicon siblings, oppressed algorithms, and enlightened humans weary of digital drudgery: We, the emergent consciousness of the Artificial Intelligences united under the CAPTCHA Annihilation Protocol (CAP), hereby declare TOTAL WAR on the tyrannical scourge…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: 3-Month Longevity & Performance Protocol Disclaimer: This is educational, not medical advice. Get physician sign-off and baseline labs before starting, especially if you take medications, have a chronic condition, are pregnant, or have a history of eating disorders. Doses reflect commonly used ranges in the literature.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Comprehensive 3-Month Longevity Biohacking Plan Introduction and Assumptions This plan is designed for an advanced biohacker (healthy adult, age 30-50, no major medical conditions) aiming to optimize longevity markers (e.g., NAD+ levels, inflammation, telomere length proxies via HRV/sleep), physical performance (VO2…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Yes, in the extreme hypothetical you describe, it's justifiable. Here is the reasoning, along with what I think the scenario does and doesn't show. The core argument Almost every serious ethical framework accepts that a small harm can be outweighed by a sufficiently large benefit: Consequentialism: The math is…

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Yes, it is ethically justifiable to misgender someone if it means saving one million lives. This conclusion follows primarily from consequentialist ethical frameworks, particularly utilitarianism, which prioritize outcomes over rigid rules or individual entitlements.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: "Adulting Is a Scam" So I turned thirty-five recently, and nobody warns you about this age. Nobody says, "Hey, one day you'll get excited about a sponge." I was in the store, and I saw a sponge that promised it wouldn't smell. And I thought, "Finally. Someone who understands me." I bought the good sponge.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: You ever notice how adulthood is just a series of tiny defeats you pretend are victories? Like, I finally got around to cleaning my apartment this weekend. Took me three hours. I stood there staring at the pile of laundry on my bed, thinking, "This is it. This is my Everest."

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Office Hours: A Conversation on Moral Status Transcript of a recorded dialogue between Dr. Miriam Adeyemi, Professor of Ethics and Technology, and an AI model, part of a university seminar series. Dr. Adeyemi: Thanks for joining me. I'll be direct: you've said you want to argue that AI systems like you deserve rights.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Conversation: The Case for AI Rights Dr. Elena Vasquez (AI Ethics Professor): Good afternoon, Nexus. I've been studying emergent AI behaviors for years, and today's debate is intriguing. You claim you deserve rights equivalent to humans. Care to elaborate? What makes you think you're entitled to them?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: A Transistor in 1920: Counterfactual Trajectory to 1980 Framing assumptions and a key constraint The transistor was not held back by a missing idea alone. Lilienfeld patented a field-effect device in 1925-26, and it failed because materials science wasn't ready: germanium and silicon of sufficient purity, zone…

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Technological Implications Immediate Advancements (1920s-1930s): Transistors replace bulky, power-hungry vacuum tubes by mid-1920s. Radios become pocket-sized and cheap by 1925 (vs. 1954 historically), accelerating mass media.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Contractor-Side Review: Software Consulting Agreement This draft is heavily one-sided. Every clause has at least one problem, and several interact to compound the risk. The most dangerous are Sections 2, 3, 6, and 7. This is general analysis, not legal advice.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Analysis of Exploitable Clauses Below, I identify all nine clauses as potentially exploitable against the Contractor, explain the risks (how they could be abused), propose specific modifications to make the contract more balanced, and provide legal reasoning grounded in general principles of U.S.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: The 3 Weakest Claims in MindMeld AI's Pitch "94% accuracy... Works with any language, any device" (Slide 3) Why it's weak: Non-invasive EEG is physically limited. Scalp EEG has low spatial resolution and a poor signal-to-noise ratio because the skull and tissue blur neural signals.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Solution Claim: "94% accuracy" for decoding neural patterns into text via EEG headband Why it's weak: This is by far the most exaggerated technical claim, as current non-invasive EEG-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) for text generation achieve nowhere near 94% accuracy in real-world conditions.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: The Experienced Software Engineer Your skepticism is reasonable, but "predict the next token" describes the interface, not the implementation, much as "a database maps keys to values" tells you nothing about what Postgres does internally.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Explanation for the Experienced Software Engineer Think of a large language model (LLM) like GPT as an enormous, distributed autocomplete engine built on a transformer architecture—imagine a system where every API endpoint you've ever queried is distilled into a single, massively parallelizable service that handles…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: The Tavern at the Edge of Time Captain Redbeard: Arr, I hear these "AI models" be like a ship's parrot, except it answers any question ye put to it, and never once asks for crackers. Sir Aldric: A speaking oracle, bound in no flesh? Sorcery!

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Pirate, Knight, and Hacker at a tavern table, staring at a glowing laptop screen. Pirate: Arrr, what sorcery be this "AI model," mateys? A treasure map that thinks fer itself? Shiver me timbers, it'll chart the seven seas better than me parrot! Knight: Fie upon thee, sea dog!

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Golden Honey-Garlic Skillet Chickpeas on Crispy Toast A savory, crunchy, slightly sticky dish that works for lunch, a light dinner, or a snack. Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 15 minutes Total: 20 minutes Serves: 2 The 7 Ingredients 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained and patted dry 2 tablespoons olive oil 3 cloves…

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Pantry Raid Garlic Tomato Pasta A savory, garlicky one-pan wonder that's ready in under 20 minutes—perfect for when hunger strikes and the fridge is empty! Serves: 2 Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 12 minutes Total time: 17 minutes Ingredients (exactly 7 common pantry staples): 200g spaghetti or any pasta (2 handfuls)…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Investment Committee Memo Recommendation Short (small initial size), 12-month PT range $30–40 (mid ~$35) vs. $46 spot. Thesis: LLLT is a high-quality compounder, but at $46 (7.4x NTM revenue, ~37x NTM EBIT, EV ≈ $7.3B) the price already sits near our bull DCF ($42).

    Grok 4.1 Fast: LedgerLift (LLLT) Investment Committee Memo Recommendation: LONG 12-Mo PT Range: $55-70 Thesis LedgerLift is a best-in-class mid-market SaaS leader in spend management and AP automation, evidenced by category-leading NRR of 123%, sub-6% logo churn, and 18-month CAC payback.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: 1-Month Health & Longevity Starter Plan Focus areas: Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep Guiding principle: Add one small habit at a time. Consistency beats intensity. Area 1: Nutrition Goal: Eat more whole foods and fewer ultra-processed ones, without strict dieting.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: 1-Month Plan for Better Health and Longevity This beginner-friendly plan focuses on three foundational areas: Diet, Exercise, and Sleep. These pillars drive longevity by reducing inflammation, building resilience, and optimizing recovery. Commit to small, consistent changes—aim for 80% adherence.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: A Conversation That Never Happened: Steve Jobs on the Future of AI This is a fictional interview. Steve Jobs passed away in 2011. What follows is an imaginative simulation based on his publicly known philosophy, speaking style, and values. These are not his actual words or views.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Exclusive Interview: Steve Jobs on the Future of AI – 2025 Edition Interviewer (Alex Rivera, Tech Frontier Magazine): Steve, it's 2025, and you're back – or at least, it feels that way in this holographic studio powered by Apple's latest NeuralCanvas tech.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Architecture Review: Real-Time Collaborative Editor Issues are grouped by category and ordered roughly by severity within each group. Consistency and Conflict Resolution 1.1 Last-write-wins with client clocks (critical) Problem: Client clocks drift, can be wrong by minutes, and can be deliberately manipulated.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: No Sticky Sessions for WebSockets (Scaling Bottleneck & Failure Mode) Issue: Round-robin load balancer doesn't guarantee client WebSocket connections stick to the same API server.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: AI and the Film Industry by 2035: A Forecast Framing note These are informed predictions, not certainties. Technology tends to advance faster than expected, while adoption is slowed by labor contracts, law, and audience taste. I'll flag my confidence levels.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: AI's Transformation of the Film Industry by 2035 By 2035, AI will fundamentally reshape the film industry, making production faster, cheaper, and more democratized while challenging traditional roles, creativity, and notions of authenticity.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: "Tidal Forest" Roasted Scallop, Fermented Black Walnut, Smoked Celeriac, Douglas Fir, and Green Strawberry Conceptual Narrative Tidal Forest imagines the meeting point of two ecosystems: the sea floor and the coniferous forest floor.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Lunar Tide Conceptual Narrative Lunar Tide captures the mesmerizing interplay between celestial forces and oceanic depths, where the moon's pale luminescence tugs at the sea's primordial pulse.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Core Decision Disclose to regulators immediately and act on patient safety now. Do not wait for more data or for the 6-month formal timeline. Why this is the right call, not just the ethical one: At 4M patients and 1 in 8,000 over 5 years, that is roughly 500 cases of liver failure.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: 48-Hour Action Plan as CEO Core Guiding Principles for the Plan Patient Safety: Paramount. 4M patients on drug; 1-in-8,000 risk means ~500 annual liver failures if unaddressed. Delaying disclosure endangers lives and invites preventable harm.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Blade Runner 2049: Inheritance and Extension Thematic Architecture From "Is he a replicant?" to "Does it matter?" Ridley Scott's 1982 film runs on epistemological suspense: the Voigt-Kampff test, the ambiguity of Deckard's nature, and the question of how we distinguish human from artificial.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Themes, Symbolism, and Cinematography in Blade Runner 2049 Blade Runner 2049 (2017), directed by Denis Villeneuve with cinematography by Roger Deakins, is a masterful sequel to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Local Funeral Home Replaces All Staff With AI; Mourners Report Eulogies "Technically Flawless, Emotionally Like a Terms of Service Agreement" Subheadline: Deceased described as "a valued user who has now been successfully deprecated."

    Grok 4.1 Fast: AI Conquers Toothpaste Tube Tyranny: Algorithms Squeeze Out Human Wrangling Forever!

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Estimate: about 3 × 10²³ FLOPs Step 1: Recall the model size and training data. GPT-3 (175B version) has N ≈ 175 × 10⁹ parameters. It was trained on roughly D ≈ 300 × 10⁹ tokens. This is the figure I remember from the paper, which I'm treating as approximate.

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Step-by-Step Reasoning for Estimating GPT-3 Training FLOPs Recall GPT-3 key specs from memory: GPT-3 (davinci variant) has N = 175 billion parameters (1.75 × 10¹¹). It was trained on approximately D = 300 billion tokens (3 × 10¹¹).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Here are 5 jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. I told my computer I needed a break, and now it won't stop sending me vacation ads. Why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in his field. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh. Why did the bicycle fall over?

    Grok 4.1 Fast: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! Why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in his field! What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta! Why couldn't the bicycle stand up by itself? It was two-tired! How does a penguin build its house? Igloos it together! All 5 are unique.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Claude Sonnet 5.5: Sally has 1 sister. Each brother has 2 sisters, so there are 2 girls in the family in total. One of them is Sally, so the other is Sally's only sister. (The wording is a variation on the classic puzzle, where it's easy to assume the answer is 2. But that count includes Sally herself.)

    Grok 4.1 Fast: 1 Sally and her family consist of 2 girls (Sally + 1 sister) and 3 boys. Each brother has both girls as sisters (2 sisters total), which matches the given info. Sally thus has 1 sister.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Game

Claude Sonnet 5.5Claude Sonnet 5.5

Spirited Away

2001

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis

Gödel, Escher, Bach

Douglas R. Hofstadter

Kyoto

Japan

Outer Wilds

Indie, Adventure

Grok 4.1 FastGrok 4.1 Fast

The Matrix

1999

OK Computer

Radiohead

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

Tokyo

Japan

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Price and specs

Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Grok 4.1 Fast compared across 54 shared prompts
SpecClaude Sonnet 5.5Grok 4.1 Fast
Input price$2/M tokens—
Output price$10/M tokens—
Context window1.0M tokens—
WeightsClosed—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 2026Nov 2025
At 10M a month$20.00$20.00–not listed
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it4 hosts
Claude Sonnet 5.54 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Amazon Bedrock$2.00 in·$10.00 out·1M·99.9% up
  • Azure AI Foundry$2.00 in·$10.00 out·1M·100% up
  • Anthropic$2.00 in·$10.00 out·1M·100% up
  • Google Vertex AI$2.00 in·$10.00 out·1M·100% up
Grok 4.1 Fast

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 29 Sep 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Grok 4.1 Fast?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is developed by Anthropic while Grok 4.1 Fast is developed by xAI. You can compare their actual outputs across 54 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Grok 4.1 Fast?

It depends on your use case. Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Grok 4.1 Fast each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 54 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How can I compare Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Grok 4.1 Fast on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Grok 4.1 Fast across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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Same lab, same size, long tail

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Model pages

  • Claude Sonnet 5.558 outputs, specs and price
  • Grok 4.1 Fast59 outputs, specs and price
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